COPTIC or COPTIC EGYPTIAN (Bohairic:
ϯⲙⲉⲧⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ _ti.met.rem.ən.khēmi_ and
Sahidic: ⲧⲙⲛ̄ⲧⲣⲙ̄ⲛ̄ⲕⲏⲙⲉ
_t.mənt.rəm.ən.kēme_) is the latest stage of the Egyptian language
, a northern Afroasiatic language spoken in
EgyptEgypt until at least the
17th century. Egyptian began to be written in the
Coptic alphabet ,
an adaptation of the
Greek alphabet with the addition of six or seven
signs from demotic to represent Egyptian sounds the
Greek languageGreek language did
not have, in the first century AD.

Several distinct Coptic dialects are identified, the most prominent
of which are _Sahidic_, originating in parts of Upper
EgyptEgypt , and
_Bohairic_, originally from the western
Nile Delta in Lower
EgyptEgypt .

Coptic and Demotic are grammatically closely related to Late Egyptian
, which was written with
Egyptian hieroglyphs . Coptic flourished as a
literary language from the second to thirteenth centuries, and its
Bohairic dialect continues to be the liturgical language of the Coptic
Orthodox Church of Alexandria . It was supplanted by Egyptian Arabic
as a spoken language toward the early modern period , but language
revitalization efforts have been underway since the 19th century.

The native Coptic name for the language is
ϯⲙⲉⲧⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ /timetremenˈkʰeːmi/ in the
Bohairic (Delta) dialect, ⲧⲙⲛ̄ⲧⲣⲙ̄ⲛ̄ⲕⲏⲙⲉ
/tmentremenˈkiːme/ in the Sahidic (Valley) dialect. The particle
prefix _me(n)t-_ from the verb ⲙⲟⲩϯ _mouti_ ('to speak') forms
all abstract nouns in Coptic (not only those pertaining to
"language"). The term _remenkhēmi/remenkēme_ meaning 'Egyptian',
literally 'person of Egypt', is a compound of _rem-_, which is the
construct state of the Coptic noun ⲣⲱⲙⲓ/ⲣⲱⲙⲉ, 'man,
human being', + the genitive preposition _(e)n-_ 'of' + the word for
'Egypt', ⲭⲏⲙⲓ/ⲕⲏⲙⲉ _khēmi/kēme_ (cf. Kemet ). Thus,
the whole expression literally means 'language of the people of
Egypt', or simply 'Egyptian language'.

Another name by which the language has been called is
ⲧⲙⲛ̄ⲧⲕⲩⲡⲧⲁⲓⲟⲛ _/timentkuptaion/_ from the
Copto-Greek form ⲧⲙⲛ̄ⲧⲁⲓⲅⲩⲡⲧⲓⲟⲛ
_/timentaiguption/_ ('Egyptian language'). The term _logos ən
aiguptios_ ('Egyptian language') is also attested in Sahidic, but
_logos_ and _aiguptios_ are both Greek in origin. In the liturgy of
the
Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria , the name is more officially
ϯⲁⲥⲡⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ _ti aspi ən rem ən
kēmi_, 'the Egyptian language', _aspi_ being the Egyptian word for
language.

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS IPA PHONETIC SYMBOLS. Without proper
rendering support , you may see question marks, boxes, or other
symbols instead of
UnicodeUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on
IPA symbols, see Help:IPA .

Coptic is today spoken liturgically in the Coptic Orthodox and Coptic
Catholic Church (along with
Modern Standard ArabicModern Standard Arabic ). The language is
spoken only in
EgyptEgypt and historically has had little influence outside
of the territory, except for monasteries located in
NubiaNubia . Coptic's
most noticeable linguistic impact has been on the various dialects of
Egyptian Arabic , which is characterized by a Coptic substratum in
lexical , morphological , syntactical , and phonological features.

INFLUENCE ON OTHER LANGUAGES

In addition to influencing the grammar, vocabulary and syntax of
Egyptian Arabic, Coptic has lent to both
ArabicArabic and Biblical Hebrew
such words as:

* _timsāḥ_, تمساح (Arabic), תמסח (Hebrew) –
"crocodile"; ⲉⲙⲥⲁϩ _emsaḥ_; this subsequently entered
Turkish as _timsah_. It should be noted, however, that Coptic
ⲉⲙⲥⲁϩ is grammatically masculine and hence would have been
vocalised _pemsaḥ_ or _bemsaḥ_ (Sahidic: ⲡⲉⲙⲥⲁϩ;
Bohairic: ⲡⲓⲉⲙⲥⲁϩ). Hence it is unclear why the word
should have entered
ArabicArabic with an initial _t_, which would have
required the word to be grammatically feminine (i.e. Sahidic:
*ⲧⲉⲙⲥⲁϩ; Bohairic: *ϯⲉⲙⲥⲁϩ).
* _ṭūbah_ طوبة "brick"; Sahidic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ _to:be_;
Bohairic ⲧⲱⲃⲓ _to:bi_; this subsequently entered Catalan and
Spanish (via Andalusian
ArabicArabic ) as _tova_ and _adobe _ respectively,
the latter of which was borrowed by
American English .
* _wāḥah_ واحة "oasis"; Sahidic ⲟⲩⲁϩⲉ _waḥe_,
Bohairic ⲟⲩⲉϩⲓ _weḥi_; this subsequently entered Turkish as
_vaha_

A few words of Coptic origin are found in the
Greek languageGreek language ; some
of the words were later lent to various European languages (such as
_barge _, from Coptic ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ _bari_, "small boat").

However, most words of Egyptian origin that entered into Greek and
subsequently into other European languages came directly from Ancient
Egyptian, often Demotic . An example is the Greek ὄασις _oasis_,
which comes directly from Egyptian _wḥ3.t_ or demotic _wḥỉ_.
However, Coptic reborrowed some words of Ancient Egyptian origin into
its lexicon, via Greek. For example, both Sahidic and Bohairic use the
word _ebenos_, which was taken directly from Greek ἔβενος
"ebony", originally from Egyptian _hbny_.

The Coptic name ⲡⲁⲡⲛⲟⲩⲧⲉ, _papnoute_ (from Egyptian
_pa-ph-nuti_), means "the (man) of God". It was adapted into
ArabicArabic as
Babnouda, which remains a common name among Egyptian
CoptsCopts to this
day. It was also borrowed into Greek as the name Παφνούτιος
(Paphnutius ). That, in turn, is the source of the Russian name
Пафнутий (Pafnuty), like the mathematician
Pafnuty Chebyshev .

The
Egyptian language may have the longest documented history of any
language, from Old Egyptian that appeared just before 3200 BC to its
final phases as Coptic in the
Middle AgesMiddle Ages . Coptic belongs to the
Later Egyptian phase, which started to be written in the New Kingdom
of
EgyptEgypt . Later Egyptian represented colloquial speech of the later
periods. It had analytic features like definite and indefinite
articles and periphrastic verb conjugation. Coptic, therefore, is a
reference to both the most recent stage of Egyptian after Demotic and
the new writing system that was adapted from the Greek alphabet.

PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD

The earliest attempts to write the
Egyptian language using the Greek
alphabet are Greek transcriptions of Egyptian proper names, most of
which date to the Ptolemaic period . Scholars frequently refer to this
phase as pre-Coptic. However, it is clear that by the late pharaonic
period , demotic scribes regularly employed a more phonetic
orthography, a testament to the increasing cultural contact between
Egyptians and
GreeksGreeks even before
Alexander the Great 's conquest of
EgyptEgypt . Coptic itself, or Old Coptic, takes root in the first century.
The transition from the older Egyptian scripts to the newly adapted
Coptic alphabet was in part due to the decline of the traditional role
played by the priestly class of ancient Egyptian religion , who unlike
most ordinary Egyptians, were literate in the temple scriptoria. Old
Coptic is represented mostly by non-Christian texts such as Egyptian
pagan prayers and magical and astrological papyri. Many of them served
as glosses to original hieratic and demotic equivalents. The glosses
may have been aimed at non-Egyptian speakers. Eighth century
Coptic manuscript of Luke 5.5–9

Under late Roman rule ,
Diocletian persecuted many Egyptian converts
to the new Christian faith , which forced new converts to flee to the
Egyptian deserts. In time, the growth of these communities generated
the need to write Christian Greek instructions in the Egyptian
language. The early Fathers of the Egyptian Church, such as Anthony
the Great ,
Pachomius the Great , Macarius of
EgyptEgypt and Athanasius of
Alexandria , who otherwise usually wrote in Greek, addressed some of
their works to the Egyptian monks in Egyptian. The Egyptian language,
now written in the Coptic alphabet, flourished in the second and third
centuries. However, it was not until
Shenoute that Coptic became a
fully standardized literary language based on the Sahidic dialect.
Shenouda's native Egyptian tongue and knowledge of Greek and rhetoric
gave him the necessary tools to elevate Coptic, in content and style,
to a literary height nearly equal to the position of the Egyptian
language in Ancient
EgyptEgypt .

ISLAMIC PERIOD

The Muslim conquest of
EgyptEgypt by
ArabsArabs came with the spread of Islam
in the seventh century. At the turn of the eighth century, Caliph Abd
al-Malik ibn Marwan decreed that
ArabicArabic replace
Koine Greek and Coptic
as the sole administrative language. Literary Coptic gradually
declined, and within a few hundred years, Egyptian bishop Severus Ibn
al-Muqaffaʿ found it necessary to write his _History of the
Patriarchs_ in Arabic. However, the language ecclesiastically retained
its important position, and many hagiographic texts were also composed
during this period. Until the 10th century, Coptic remained the spoken
language of the native population outside the capital.

Persecutions under the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517) led to the
further decline of Coptic until it completely gave way to Egyptian
ArabicArabic around the 17th century, though it may have survived in
isolated pockets for a little longer. In the second half of the 19th
century,
Pope Cyril IV of Alexandria started a national
Church-sponsored movement to revive Coptic. Several works of grammar
were published, along with a more comprehensive dictionary than had
been previously available. The scholarly findings of the field of
Egyptology and the inauguration of the Institute of Coptic Studies
further contributed to the renaissance. Efforts at language
revitalization continue to be undertaken, both inside and outside the
Church , and have attracted the interest of
CoptsCopts and linguists in and
outside of Egypt.

Coptic uses a writing system almost wholly derived from the Greek
alphabet , with the addition of a number of letters that have their
origins in Demotic Egyptian . (That makes it comparable to the
Latin-based Icelandic alphabet , which includes the runic letter thorn
.) There is some variation in the number and forms of these signs
depending on the dialect. Some of the letters in the Coptic alphabet
that are of Greek origin were normally reserved for words that are
themselves Greek. Old Coptic texts employed several graphemes that
were not retained in the literary Coptic orthography of later
centuries.

In Sahidic, syllable boundary may have been marked by a supralinear
stroke. Such words in the northern dialects have ⲉ ( or ) in place
of the superlinear stroke. Some scribal traditions use a diaeresis
over /i/ and /u/ at the beginning of a syllable . Bohairic uses a
superposed point or small stroke known as a _djinkim_. It may be
related to the Sahidic supralinear stroke, or it may indicate a
glottal stop . Most Coptic texts do not indicate a word division.

The oldest Coptic writings date to the pre-Christian era (Old
Coptic), though
Coptic literature consists mostly of texts written by
prominent saints of the Coptic Church such as Anthony the Great,
Pachomius the Great and Shenoute.
Shenoute helped fully standardize
the
Coptic languageCoptic language through his many sermons, treatises and homilies,
which formed the basis of early Coptic literature.

VOCABULARY

The core lexicon of Coptic is Egyptian , most closely related to the
preceding Demotic phase of the language. Up to 20% of the vocabulary
of literary Coptic is drawn from Greek , but borrowings are not always
fully adapted to the Coptic phonological system and may have semantic
differences as well. There are instances of Coptic texts having
passages that are almost entirely composed from Greek lexical roots.
However, that is likely due to the fact that the majority of Coptic
religious texts are direct translations of Greek works.

‘What invariably attracts the attention of the reader of a Coptic
text, especially if it is written in the Sa'idic dialect, is the very
liberal use which is made of Greek loan words, of which so few,
indeed, are to be found in the Ancient Egyptian language. There Greek
loan words occur everywhere in Coptic literature, be it Biblical,
liturgical, theological, or non-literary, i.e. legal documents and
personal letters. Though nouns and verbs predominate, the Greek loan
words may come from any other part of speech except pronouns.’

Words or concepts for which no adequate Egyptian translation existed
were taken directly from Greek to avoid altering the meaning of the
religious message. In addition, other Egyptian words that would have
adequately translated the Greek equivalents were not employed as they
were perceived as having overt pagan associations. Old Coptic texts
employ many such words, phrases and epithets; for example, the word
ⲧⲃⲁⲓⲧⲱⲩ '(Who is) in (His) Mountain', is an epithet of
Anubis . There are also traces of some archaic grammatical features,
such as residues of the Demotic relative clause , lack of an
indefinite article and possessive use of suffixes.

Thus, the transition from the 'old' traditions to the new Christian
religion also contributed to the adoption of Greek words into the
Coptic religious lexicon. It is safe to assume that the everyday
speech of the native population retained, to a greater extent, its
indigenous Egyptian character, which is sometimes reflected in Coptic
nonreligious documents such as letters and contracts.

PHONOLOGY

Coptic provides the clearest indication of Later Egyptian phonology
from its writing system, which fully indicates vowel sounds and
occasionally stress pattern. The phonological system of Later Egyptian
is also better known than that of the Classical phase of the language
because of a greater number of sources indicating Egyptian sounds,
including cuneiform letters containing transcriptions of Egyptian
words and phrases, and Egyptian renderings of Northwest Semitic names.
Coptic sounds, in addition, are known from a variety of Coptic-Arabic
papyri in which
ArabicArabic letters were used to transcribe Coptic and vice
versa. They date to the medieval Islamic period, when Coptic was still
spoken.

VOWELS

There are some differences of opinion among
Coptic languageCoptic language scholars
on the correct phonetic interpretation of the writing system of
Coptic. Differences centre on how to interpret the pairs of letters
ε/η and ο/ω. In Greek spelling, the first member of each pair is a
short closed vowel /e,o/, and the second member is a long open vowel
/ɛː, ɔː/. In some interpretations of Coptic phonology (Plumley
1948), it is assumed that the length difference is primary, with ε/η
e/eː and ο/ω is o/oː. Other scholars (Greenberg 1962/1990, Lambdin
1983:xii-ix) argue for a different analysis in which ε/η and ο/ω
are interpreted as e/ɛ and o/ɔ.

These two charts show the two theories of Coptic vowel phonology:

MONOPHTHONG PHONEMES (LENGTH THEORY)

FRONT
CENTRAL
BACK

CLOSE
iː

uː

CLOSE-MID
eː e

oː o

MID

ə

OPEN

a

MONOPHTHONG PHONEMES (VOWEL QUALITY THEORY)

FRONT
CENTRAL
BACK

CLOSE
iː

uː

CLOSE-MID
e

o

MID
ɛ
ə
ɔ

OPEN

a

In the Upper Egyptian dialects, a superlinear stroke is placed over
sonorants to mark a reduced /e/. The vowel does not undergo reduction
in the northern dialects, where it is indicated by ⲉ in Bohairic and
ⲏ or ⲩ in Fayyumic. For example, /ʃemʃə/ 'to worship' is
Sah/Akh/Lyc ϣⲙ̅ϣⲉ, Bohairic ϣⲉⲙϣⲓ and Fayyumic
ϣⲏⲙϣⲓ. The vowel quality of /e/ can vary: either or
depending on the dialect. In Sahidic and other Upper Egyptian
dialects, word-final ⲉ corresponds to word-final ⲓ in the northern
dialects.

The vowel /ɑ/ is typically represented by ⲁ, and its presence may
be an indicator of emphasis spread in the same syllable. For example,
ⲥⲁ (used in the construction 'man of ') is transcribed ⟨sˤɑ⟩
in medieval Coptic-
ArabicArabic papyri. In some phonetic environments, /o/
is a more open , and /a/ is a more forward . The vowel /ə/ is always
unstressed and can be reduced to zero as in earlier Egyptian scripts,
which did not indicate unstressed and most stressed vowels.

Coptic also has three to four diphthongs (mainly , and ), but they
may be interpreted as series of vowels and glides. In some dialects,
they are monophthongized .

CONSONANTS

As with the vowels, there are differences of opinion over the correct
interpretation of the Coptic consonant letters, particular the letters
ϫ and Ϭ. ϫ is transcribed as ⟨j⟩ in many older Coptic sources
and Ϭ as /ɡ/ (Plumley 1947) or /tʃ/. Lambdin (1983) notes that the
current conventional pronunciations are different from the probable
ancient pronunciations: ϫ was probably pronounced and Ϭ was
probably pronounced . Reintges (2004:22) suggests that ϫ was
pronounced .

The following chart shows the consonants that are represented in
Sahidic Coptic orthography. Consonants that are rare or found
primarily in Greek loanwords are shown in parentheses:

Sahidic Coptic consonants

LABIAL
ALVEOLAR
Post-
alveolar VELAR
GLOTTAL

PLAIN
DEN.
PLAIN
PAL.
PLAIN
PAL.

NASAL
m

n

STOP
VOICELESS
p

t
tʲ

k
kʲ
ʔ

VOICED

(d )

(g )

AFFRICATE
VOICELESS

(t͡ʃ )

VOICED

(d͡ʒ )

FRICATIVE
VOICELESS

f
s

ʃ

h

VOICED
β

(z )

APPROXIMANT
w

l

j

TRILL

r

Bohairic Coptic has an additional consonant, /x/, spelled Ϧ. It is
possible that in the ancient pronunciation of Coptic that there were
additional consonants not spelled in the writing system, such as /ʕ/.

Earlier phases of Egyptian may have contrasted voiceless and voiced
bilabial plosives, but the distinction seems to have been lost. Late
Egyptian, Demotic and Coptic all interchangeably use their respective
graphemes to indicate either sound; for example, Coptic for 'iron'
appears alternately as ⲡⲉⲛⲓⲡⲉ, ⲃⲉⲛⲓⲡⲉ and
ⲃⲓⲛⲓⲃⲉ. That probably reflects dialect variation. Both
letters were interchanged with ⲫ and ϥ to indicate /f/, and ⲃ was
also used in many texts to indicate the bilabial approximant /w/.
Coptologists believe that Coptic ⲃ was articulated as a voiced
bilabial fricative . In the present-day Coptic Church services, this
letter is realized as /v/, but it is almost certainly a result of the
pronunciation reforms instituted in the 19th century.

Whereas Old Egyptian contrasts /s/ and /z/, the two sounds appear to
be in free variation in Coptic, as they were since the Middle Egyptian
period. However, they are contrasted only in Greek loans; for example,
native Coptic ⲁⲛⲍⲏⲃⲉ (_anzībə_) and ⲁⲛⲥⲏⲃⲉ
(_ansībə_) 'school' are homophonous. Other consonants that sometimes
appear to be either in free variation or to have different
distributions across dialects are and , and (especially in the
Fayyumic dialect, a feature of earlier Egyptian) and and , with the
voiceless stop consonants being more common in Coptic words and the
voiced ones in Greek borrowings. Apart from the liquid consonants ,
this pattern may indicate a sound change in Later Egyptian, leading to
a neutralization of voiced alveolar and velar plosives. When the
voiced plosives are realized, it is usually the result of consonant
voicing in proximity to /n/.

Old Coptic texts graphically express the Egyptian pharyngeals in a
variety of ways. For example, the Old Coptic grapheme ⳍ was
occasionally used to convey a voiceless pharyngeal fricative . In
literary Coptic, the two sounds are not indicated by separate letters,
suggesting loss of phonemic status. Instead, the adapted demotic
grapheme ϩ, which normally stands for /h/, is used to express either
sound. In unstressed initial syllables and stressed final syllables,
the voiced pharyngeal fricative is sometimes conveyed by ⲁ as in
ⲁϣⲁⲓ (_ʕšai_) 'to multiply'. Similarly, different methods are
employed to graphically express the glottal stop : with ⲁ
word-initially, with ⲓ word-finally in monosyllabic words in
northern dialects and ⲉ in monosyllabic words in Akhmimic and
Assiutic, by reduplication of a vowel's grapheme but mostly as .

GRAMMAR

Coptic is agglutinative with subject–verb–object word order but
can be verb–subject–object with the correct preposition in front
of the subject. Number, gender, tense, and mood are indicated by
prefixes that come from Late Egyptian. The earlier phases of Egyptian
did this through suffixation. Some vestiges of the suffix inflection
survive in Coptic, mainly to indicate inalienable possession and in
some verbs. Compare the Middle Egyptian form _*satāpafa_ 'he chooses'
(written _stp.f_ in hieroglyphs) to Coptic (Sahidic) _f.sotp_
ϥⲥⲱⲧⲡ̅ 'he chooses'.

NOUNS

All Coptic nouns carry grammatical gender , either masculine or
feminine, usually marked through a prefixed definite article as in the
Romance languagesRomance languages . Masculine nouns are marked with the article /pə,
peː/ and feminine nouns with the article /tə, teː/ in the Sahidic
dialect and /pi, əp/ and /ti, ət/ in the Bohairic dialect.

Bohairic: ⲡⲓⲣⲱⲙⲓ /pi-roːmi/ - 'the man' / ϯϫⲓϫ
/ti-dʒig/ - 'the hand'

Sahidic: ⲡⲉⲣⲱⲙⲉ /pə-roːme/ - 'the man' / ⲧⲉϫⲓϫ
/tə-ciɟ/ - 'the hand'

The definite and indefinite articles also indicate number ; however,
only definite articles mark gender. Coptic has a number of broken
plurals , a vestige of Older Egyptian, but in the majority of cases,
the article marks number. Generally, nouns inflected for plurality end
in /wə/, but there are some irregularities. The dual was another
feature of earlier Egyptian that survives in Coptic in only few words,
such as ⲥⲛⲁⲩ (_snau_) 'two'.

Words of Greek origin keep their original grammatical gender, except
for neuter nouns, which become masculine in Coptic.

Pronouns

_
THIS SECTION NEEDS EXPANSION. You can help by adding to it . (June
2008)_

Coptic pronouns are of two kinds, dependent and independent.
Independent pronouns are used when the pronoun is acting as the
subject of a sentence, as the object of a verb, or with a preposition.
Dependent pronouns are a series of prefixes and suffixes that can
attach to verbs and other nouns. Coptic verbs can therefore be said to
inflect for the person, number and gender of the subject and the
object: a pronominal prefix marks the subject, and a pronominal suffix
marks the object, e.g. "I I'have'it the ball." When (as in this case)
the subject is a pronoun, it normally isn't also expressed
independently, unless for emphasis.

As in other Afroasiatic languages, gender of pronouns differ only in
the second and third person singular. The following table shows the
pronouns of the Sahidian dialect:

INDEPENDENT
PROCLITIC
AS SUFFIX

STRESSED
UNSTRESSED

SINGULAR
1.
anok
anəg-
ti-
=i

2. m.
ənthok
əntek-
ək-
=k

2. f.
əntho
ənte-
te-, tr-
=∅, =e, =r(e), =te

3. m.
ənthof

əf-
=f

3. f.
ənthos

əs-
=s

PLURAL
1.
anon
an-
ten-
=n

2.
ənthōten
ənten-
teten-
=ten, =teten

3.
ənthōou

se-
=ou

ADJECTIVES

Most Coptic adjectives are actually nouns that have the attributive
particle _n_ to make them adjectival. In all stages of Egyptian, this
morpheme is also used to express the genitive ; for example, the
Bohairic word for 'Egyptian', ⲣⲉⲙ̀ⲛⲭⲏⲙⲓ
/remenkʰeːmi/, is a combination of the nominal prefix _rem-_ (the
reduced form of ⲣⲱⲙⲓ _rōmi_ 'man'), followed by the genitive
morpheme _ən_ ('of') and finally the word for Egypt, _khēmi_.

VERBS

_
THIS SECTION NEEDS EXPANSION. You can help by adding to it . (June
2008)_

Verbal Grade System

Coptic, like Ancient Egyptian and Semitic languages, has
root-and-pattern or templatic morphology, and the basic meaning of a
verb is contained in a root and various derived forms of root are
obtained by varying the vowel pattern. For example, the root for
'build' is _kt_. It has four derived forms: kɔt (the absolute state
grade); ket- (the nominal state grade), kot= (the pronominal state
grade), and kɛt (the stative grade). (The nominal state grade is also
called the construct state in some grammars of Coptic.)

The absolute, nominal, and pronominal state grades are used in
different syntactic contexts. The absolute state grade of a transitive
verb is used before a direct object with the accusative preposition
/ən, əm/, and the nominal state grade is used before a direct object
with no case-marking. The pronominal state grade is used before a
pronominal direct object enclitic. In addition, many verbs also have a
neutral state grade, used to express a state resulting from the action
of the verb. Compare the following forms (Lambdin 1983:39):

ABSOLUTE STATE GRADE

ⲁⲓϫⲓⲙⲓ ⲙ̀ⲡⲁⲓⲱⲧ

/a-i-dʒimi əm-p-a-joːt/

perfective-1sg-find.abs
prep-def:masc:sg-1sg-father

'I found my father.'

NOMINAL STATE GRADE

ⲁⲓϫⲉⲙ ⲙ̀ⲡⲁⲓⲱⲧ

/a-i-dʒem əm-p-a-joːt/

perfective-1sg-find.nom
def:masc:sg-1sg-father

'I found my father.'

PRONOMINAL STATE GRADE

a-i-kʲənt=f

perfective-1sg-find.pronom=3msg

'I found him.'

For most transitive verbs, both absolute and nominal state grade
verbs are available for non-pronominal objects. However, there is one
important restriction, known as _Jernstedt's rule_ (or the
_Stern-Jernstedt rule_) (Jernstedt 1927): present-tense sentences
cannot be used in the nominal state grade. Thus sentences in the
present tense always show a pattern like the first example above
(absolute state), never the second pattern (nominal state).

In general, the four grades of Coptic verb are not predictable from
the root, and are listed in the lexicon for each verb. The following
chart shows some typical patterns of correspondence:

GLOSS
ABSOLUTE STATE
NOMINAL STATE
PRONOMINAL STATE
NEUTRAL STATE

spread
poːrəʃ
pərʃ
poːrʃ
porəʃ

dig
ʃike
ʃekt
ʃakt
ʃoke

comfort
solsəl
səlsəl
səlsoːl
səlsoːl

roll
skorkər
skərkər
skərkoːr
skərkoːr

build
koːt
ket
kot
keːt

It is hazardous to make firm generalizations about the relationships
between these grade forms, but the nominal state is usually shorter
than the corresponding absolute and neutral forms. Absolute and
neutral state forms are usually bisyllabic or contain a long vowel;
the corresponding nominal state forms are monosyllabic or have short
vowels.

Tense/aspect/mood Inflection

Coptic has a very large number of distinct tense/aspect/mood
categories, expressed by particles which are either before the verb or
before the subject. The future I /na/ is a preverbal particle and
follows the subject (Reintges 2010:210):

Pə-tʲoeis
NA-krine
ən-nə-Laos

def:m:sg-lord
fut-judge
prep-def:pl-people

'The lord will judge the nations.'

In contrast, the perfective /a/ is a pre-subject particle:

A
te-f-soːne
de
ol
ən-ne-f-keːs

perf
def:f:sg-3msg-sister
part
carry.abs
prep-def:pl-3msg-bone

'His sister carried his bones.'

There is some variation in the labels for the tense/aspect/mood
categories. The chart below shows the labels from Reintges (2004),
Lambdin (1983), Plumley (1948). (Where they agree, only one label is
shown.) Each form lists the morphology found with a nonpronominal
subject and a third person singular masculine pronominal
subject('he'):

An unusual feature of Coptic is the extensive use of a set of "second
tenses", which are required in certain syntactic contexts. "Second
tenses" are also called "relative tenses" in some work (Reintges
2004).

PREPOSITIONS

_
THIS SECTION NEEDS EXPANSION. You can help by adding to it . (June
2008)_

Coptic has prepositions, rather than postpositions:

hi
p-tʲoi

on
def:masc:sg-ship

'on the ship'

Pronominal objects of prepositions are indicated with enclitic
pronouns:

ero=k 'to you (m.sg)'

na=n 'for us'

Many prepositions have different forms before the enclitic pronouns
(Lambdin 2003:30–31). Compare

e p-tʲoi 'to the ship'

ero=f 'to him'

SYNTAX

SENTENTIAL SYNTAX

_
THIS SECTION NEEDS EXPANSION. You can help by adding to it . (June
2008)_

Coptic typically shows subject–verb–object (SVO) word order, as
in the following examples:

A
tə-kʲamaule
mise
ən-u-ʃeːre
ən-shime

perfective
def:fem:sg-camel
deliver.abs
prep-indef:sg-girl
link-woman

'The she-camel delivered a daughter.'

Pə-tʲoeis
na-krine
ən-nə-Laos

def:m:sg-lord
fut-judge
prep-def:pl-people

'The Lord will judge the people.'

A-i-kʲine
əm-p-a-eioːt

perfective-1sg-find.abs
prep-def:masc:sg-1sg-father

'I found my father.'

The verbs in these sentences are in the _absolute state grade_
(Reintges 2010:208), which requires that its direct object be
introduced with the preposition /ən, əm/. This preposition functions
like accusative case .

There is also an alternative _nominal state grade_ of the verb in
which the direct object of the verb follows with no preposition:

a-i-kʲən
p-a-eioːt

perfective-1sg-find.nom
def:masc:sg-1sg-father

'I found my father.'

DIALECTS

Sandstone stela, inscribed with Coptic text. The names
Phoibammon and Abraham appear. From Egypt, find spot unknown, date
known. The British Museum, London Coptic and Arabic
inscriptions in an Old Cairo church

There is little written evidence of dialectal differences in the
pre-Coptic phases of the
Egyptian language due to the centralized
nature of the political and cultural institutions of ancient Egyptian
society. However, literary Old and Middle (Classical) Egyptian
represent the spoken dialect of Lower
EgyptEgypt around the city of Memphis
, the capital of
EgyptEgypt in the Old Kingdom . Later Egyptian is more
representative of the dialects spoken in Upper Egypt, especially
around the area of Thebes as it became the cultural and religious
center of the New Kingdom.

Coptic more obviously displays a number of regional dialects that
were in use from the coast of the
Mediterranean SeaMediterranean Sea in northern Egypt,
south into
NubiaNubia , and in the western oases. However, while many of
these dialects reflect actual regional linguistic (namely phonological
and some lexical) variation, they mostly reflect localized
orthographic traditions with very little grammatical differences.

SAHIDIC (also known as THEBAIC) is the dialect in which most known
Coptic texts are written, and was the leading dialect in the
pre-Islamic period. It is thought to have originally been a regional
dialect from the area around
Hermopolis (Coptic
Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛⲉⲓⲛ _Shmounein_). Around 300 it began to be
written in literary form, including translations of major portions of
the
BibleBible (see Coptic versions of the
BibleBible ). By the 6th century, a
standardized spelling had been attained throughout Egypt. Almost all
native authors wrote in this dialect of Coptic. Sahidic was, beginning
in the 9th century challenged by Bohairic, but is attested as late as
the 14th century.

While texts in other Coptic dialects are primarily translations of
Greek literary and religious texts, Sahidic is the only dialect with a
considerable body of original literature and non-literary texts.
Because Sahidic shares most of its features with other dialects of
Coptic with few peculiarities specific to itself, and has an extensive
corpus of known texts, it is generally the dialect studied by learners
of Coptic, particularly by scholars outside of the Coptic Church.

Akhmimic

AKHMIMIC was the dialect of the area around the town of
Akhmim (Greek
_Panopolis_). It flourished during the fourth and fifth centuries,
after which no writings are attested. Akhmimic is phonologically the
most archaic of the Coptic dialects. One characteristic feature is the
retention of the phoneme /x/, which is realized as /ʃ/ in most other
dialects. Similarly, it uses an exceptionally conservative writing
system strikingly similar to Old Coptic.

Lycopolitan

LYCOPOLITAN (also known as SUBAKHMIMIC and ASSIUTIC) is a dialect
closely related to Akhmimic in terms of when and where it was
attested, but manuscripts written in Lycopolitan tend to be from the
area of
AsyutAsyut . The main differences between the two dialects seem to
be graphic in nature. The Lycopolitan variety was used extensively for
translations of Gnostic and Manichaean works, including the texts of
the
Nag Hammadi libraryNag Hammadi library .

LOWER EGYPT

Bohairic

The BOHAIRIC (also known as MEMPHITIC) dialect originated in the
western
Nile Delta . The earliest Bohairic manuscripts date to the 4th
century, but most texts come from the 9th century and later; this may
be due to poor preservation conditions for texts in the humid regions
of northern Egypt. It shows several conservative features in lexicon
and phonology not found in other dialects. Bohairic is the dialect
used today as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church,
replacing Sahidic some time in the eleventh century. In contemporary
liturgical use, there are two traditions of pronunciation, arising
from successive reforms in the 19th and 20th centuries (see Coptic
pronunciation reform ). Modern revitalization efforts are based on
this dialect.

Fayyumic

FAYYUMIC (also written as FAIYUMIC; in older works it is often called
BASHMURIC) was spoken primarily in the
Faiyum west of the Nile Valley.
It is attested from the 3rd to the 10th centuries. It is most notable
for writing ⲗ (which corresponds to /l/), where other dialects
generally use ⲣ /r/ (probably corresponding to a flap ). In earlier
stages of Egyptian, the liquids were not distinguished in writing
until the New Kingdom, when Late Egyptian became the administrative
language. Late Egyptian orthography utilized a grapheme that combined
the graphemes for /r/ and /n/ in order to express /l/. Demotic for its
part indicated /l/ using a diacritic variety of /r/.

Oxyrhynchite

OXYRHYNCHITE (also known as MESOKEMIC or MIDDLE EGYPTIAN) is the
dialect of
OxyrhynchusOxyrhynchus and surrounding areas. It shows similarities
with Fayyumic and is attested in manuscripts from the fourth and fifth
centuries.

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coptic_language additional
terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and
Privacy Policy .® is a registered trademark of the
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. , a non-profit organization.